To this ever-growing list we can now add Michigan state lawmaker Gary Glenn, who has been tapped to serve as one of the campaign's state legislative co-chairs.

Prior to winning his seat in the state legislature, Glenn served as president of the American Family Association of Michigan, the state arm of the anti-gay hate group the American Family Association, where he promoted a variety of anti-gay positions and even called for the criminalization of homosexuality:

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, has added his voice to a growing chorus of American leaders calling for the re-criminalization of homosexuality in the U.S.

In an e-mail to Michigan Messenger, here’s how Glenn responded when asked if he supported the criminalization move proposed by the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg’s comments last week on Hardball:

“The short answer to your question is yes, we believe that states should be free to regulate and prohibit behavior that’s a violation of community standards and a proven threat to public health and safety — including, as most of the United States did throughout its history, homosexual behavior.”

Last year, Glenn appeared in a film made by fellow anti-gay activist Janet Porter in which he declared that public school officials ought to be held criminally liable if students are taught about homosexuality and then contract some sort of sexually transmitted disease.

"If some young person hears at school that it's okay to be gay and then comes down with a fatal disease as a result," Glenn said, "school officials should be held legally liable, individually and in their official capacities, financially and maybe even criminal":

Today, Ted Cruz continued to build on the campaign’s strong Michigan leadership team with endorsements from several conservative legislative leaders. The endorsements expand the Michigan Leadership team to over 100 members, including county chairs in all 83 counties and faith leaders from all across the state. Over 4,000 volunteers have signed up to help with the campaign.

“I am thrilled to announce the addition of such outstanding conservative legislators to our Michigan leadership team,” said Cruz. “These courageous conservatives are coalescing behind our campaign because the people of Michigan are tired of career politicians in Washington and want someone who has a record of fighting for our values and the Constitution.”

“Ted Cruz can bring to Washington what conservatives in the state legislatures across the nation have been yearning for — consistent conservative leadership,” said Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck.

State Legislative Co-Chairs Michigan:

United States Congressman Justin Amash
State Senator Patrick Colbeck
Former State Senator Bruce Patterson
State Representative Lana Theis
State Representative Joel Johnson
State Representative Gary Glenn
State Representative Ray Franz
State Representative Tom Hooker
Former State Representative Fulton Sheen

Janet Porter, founder and president of Faith2Action, compares homosexuality to a deadly children’s toy in her new anti-gay documentary “Light Wins,” which features appearances from Republican leaders Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul.

Porter ominously questions: “If hundreds of thousands of people died from a product that’s being marketed to your children, would you want to know about it? A lethal product like that would have more than a warning label, it would be pulled from the shelves and anyone caught selling it would be held legally liable?” The answer would be yes, Porter explained, “unless that product happened to be homosexual behavior, a behavior responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands.”

Anti-gay activist John R. Diggs, Jr. explains to viewers that the facts regarding the deadliness of homosexuality come from “the biggest sources of medicine, whether it be the Center for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, the Journal of the American Medical Association.” For this reason, Diggs suggests that gay people who are angry about what he is saying “speak to the most anti-gay force in the world, and that is Mother Nature herself.”

Religious Right pseudo-historian David Barton also chimes in, saying that in order for a revival to take place, Americans must “address the homosexual issue” and “confront it head-on.” Michigan state Rep. Gary Glenn adds that it is possible to save gay individuals because “there have been thousands of people who have” gotten out of the homosexual “lifestyle.”

Porter laments that her prophesized criminalization of sexual orientation conversion therapy has come to fruition. Now, “licensed counselors in California and New Jersey are forbidden from giving hope to minors who do not want same-sex attractions.” Even if pastors “do anything other than encourage homosexual behavior, they will lose their license to counsel,” she claims. Porter, dramatically positioned in front of a closing iron door, warns that “for those who want help leaving homosexuality, that door is closed.”

Earlier this year, Religious Right activist Janet Porter announced that she had produced a documentary called "Light Wins: How To Overcome The Criminalization Of Christianity," which featured a who's who of anti-gay activists, Republican members of Congress, and GOP presidential candidates warning that gay rights activists are out to destroy Christianity and put Christians in jail.

Nothing quite sums up the anti-gay insanity that fundamentally drives this movie like this segment in which an anti-gay activist wearing a doctor's coat says that placing one's genitals in "the tract where you expel waste" is nothing short of perversion, while Liberty University's Judith Reisman says that teaching children about homosexuality is "grooming the child for sexual activity" and is a crime.

Not to be outdone, Gary Glenn, who is a long-time anti-gay activist who also happens to be a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives, declares that public school officials ought to be held criminally liable if students are taught about homosexuality and then contract some sort of sexually transmitted disease.

"If some young person hears at school that it's okay to be gay and then comes down with a fatal disease as a result," Glenn said, "school officials should be held legally liable, individually and in their official capacities, financially and maybe even criminal":

Right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton also makes an appearance to warn that God does not approve of Christians who do not speak out in opposition to homosexuality while Porter trots out her favorite claim that gay marriage was responsible for Noah's flood.

The Supreme Court's possible legalization of gay marriage, Porter warns, means that "we are uniquely and distinctly positioned for the return of Christ like no other time in history":

Radical Religious Right activist Janet Porter has released yet another trailer for her upcoming documentary "Light Wins: How To Overcome The Criminalization Of Christianity," which features a who's who of anti-gay activists as well as several Republican members of Congress and presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee.

"Like a tank in Tiananmen Square," Porter says, as she walks down the middle of a dark street as a pair of headlights bear down upon her, "the homosexual agenda has been running over people since Anita Bryant's courageous stand in the 1970s."

After that, it is nothing but 10 minutes of anti-gay activists calling upon Christians to rise up and fight back against the "homosexual agenda."

At one point, Gohmert declares that it is the duty of Christians to "love people who engage in homosexualty" because "we all have family members that we think are making major mistakes with their lives, but you can still love them."

Later, Pastor Steve Witt declares that just as God would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah if only 10 righteous people could be found, so too can most American cities be spared, but only if thousands of people will take a stand against homosexuality.

At the end of this new clip, Porter is shown in an empty football stadium, warning that "the battle for our freedom is being fought while most Christians are on the sidelines. We need to get out of the stands and into the game because the Super Bowl for our country is being fought and our team is not even on the field."

Glenn, a former head of the American Family Association’s Michigan chapter, wants to recriminalize homosexuality, which he says is “a proven threat to public health and safety,” and even filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act, falsely alleging that the law would “criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians.”

He has also urged businesses to refuse to hire “individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences,” telling employers that “it’s not really bright to engage in behavior that puts you at dramatically higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse and AIDS and cancer and hepatitis, and according to various sources, premature death.”

Glenn was a prominent supporter of Michigan’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning marriage equality and was a big backer of his “very special friend” Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential bid. As the head of the American Family Association’s Michigan affiliate, Glenn has pushed any number of extreme anti-gay positions:

Wants states to be able to recriminalize homosexuality: “[W]e believe that states should be free to regulate and prohibit behavior that’s a violation of community standards and a proven threat to public health and safety — including, as most of the United States did throughout its history, homosexual behavior.”

Residents of Bay County, Michigan, are receiving robocalls from the state chapter of the American Family Association urging them to reject a proposed nondiscrimination ordinance that the group claims “threatens religious freedom and women’s privacy rights by giving special protections to individuals involved in homosexual behavior or cross-dressing.”

The Bay City Times has posted a recording of the robocall, in which AFA Michigan president Gary Glenn calls the LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance a “discriminatory law.”

The ordinance would prohibit [pdf] the county government from discriminating on the basis of “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, height, weight, marital status, physical or mental limitation, familial status, sexual orientation, or gender identity/expression.” It would not apply to private businesses, although Glenn has nevertheless fretted that it would require a Christian bookstore to “hire a man who comes to work wearing a dress.”

Last week, the Frederick Douglass Society hosted a Junteenth Celebration in Michigan at which Gary Glenn of the American Family Association spoke.

During his remarks, Glenn declared that the Republican Party had been formed for the express purpose of fighting slavery and defending marriage, which inspired him tie Martin Luther King's famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to the forthcoming Supreme Court decisions on marriage equality by calling on Christians and the governors of the states which have outlawed gay marriage to ignore any ruling that might strike down those laws.

"With the heritage we have from the freedom fighters and the Freedom Riders who came before us," Glenn declared, "God forgive us if we fail to stand. But if we do, as Martin Luther King said we should do to fulfill our Christian duty, we will threaten those, we will over come those who threaten our faith and freedom. And we will be proud to stand with you in that struggle for our faith [and] we will be blessed for doing so":

Faith 2 Action’s Janet Porter has been releasing clips of her film which warns that gays and lesbians are out to criminalize Christianity and no different than adulterers. In the latest segment, actors mock the books “Heather Has Two Mommies” and “Daddy’s Roommate” by having a teacher read “Heather has Two Cigarettes” and “Daddy’s Roommate has Lung Cancer,” while accusing a non-smoking toddler of being a “smokerphobe.”

“Homosexual behavior is up to three times more dangerous than smoking,” according to Porter’s film, “We don’t promote smoking in the schools, so why would we promote something even more dangerous.”

The film later interviews the head of the American Family Association’s Michigan chapter Gary Glenn, who favors the criminalization of homosexuality, who said that homosexuality should be discouraged in the same way we see campaigns against smoking.

“If you really care and love somebody you don’t want them to be involved in behavior that’s going to make them die earlier,” Glenn said, “if you love them you want them to stick around and encourage them to get out of that lifestyle…. True Christian compassion is trying to help people out of self- destructive behavior.”

The American Decency Association and the American Family Association are fighting an anti-discrimination ordinance in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, that would protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in jobs, housing and public accommodations. Gary Glenn, a Republican candidate for US Senate and the head of the AFA’s Michigan chapter, called it a “discriminatory ordinance” and a “volatile proposal which is clearly a solution in search of a non-existent problem.” The American Decency Association, which is based in the nearby Fremont, Michigan, is asking members to email the mayor, warning that those “promoting gayness as a legitimate lifestyle” are putting America on the road to “godlessness, reprobation, tyranny and anarchy”:

The real issue is not that people are “gay,” but that the “gay” movement insists on promoting gayness as a legitimate lifestyle. This is the root issue, the cosmic issue throughout history:

Calling good what God calls evil. It is the fundamental expression of human anarchy in defiance of God's moral order. It is the original temptation marking humanity's descent from God and authentic goodness.

It is not enough that we transgress God's law. Humans must also reject the very idea of order - make immorality moral - sanctify sin.

You as leaders are being drawn into/pressured into making allowances for immoral lifestyles. The "gay" movement is couching their non-discrimination as injustice and unfairness but in truth they are lobbying for acceptance of their immoral and unhealthy lifestyle. Calling good what God calls evil may play for a season but little by little ever so slowly as we have seen in other countries it will lead to increasing confusion, godlessness, reprobation, tyranny and anarchy. Immorality will ultimately prevail as we as individuals and/or as leaders give license to immorality.

On behalf of morality and those who come after us I urge you to vote against the so-called non-discrimination ordinance.

Early in 2010, Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan and three Michigan pastors filed a lawsuit against the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The group was represented by the ultra-right wing Thomas More Law Center, which argued that "the sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians from expressing their Biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin."

The lawsuit was dismissed in September of that year and that was the last we had heard about it, though Glenn continued with his anti-gayactivism and then decided to make a bid for the US Senate.

A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati is taking up the claim of three Michigan ministers that a federal hate crime law infringes on their First Amendment rights and should be declared unconstitutional.

Oral arguments are scheduled Wednesday.

The law expands federal hate crimes to those committed against people because of sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The ministers say they could be targeted for their sermons against gay behavior. The law's supporters say it's aimed at acts of violence, not speech by clergy.

A lower court judge dismissed the lawsuit last year.

The ministers are Jim Combs of Waterford, Rene Ouellette (oo-LET') of Bridgeport and Levon Yuille (YOOL) of Ypsilanti. Another plaintiff is Gary Glenn, head of the American Family Association of Michigan.

President Obama signed the legislation in October 2009 and, to date, not one person has been charged for preaching against homosexuality ... but that obviously is not going to stop anti-gay activists from filing lawsuits claiming that is exactly what will happen.

We have longmarvelled at how Mike Huckabee manages to use his folksy "aw shucks" charm to craft a reputation as a rather reasonable moderate rather then the anti-gay Religious Right ideologue that he is.

Huckabee regularlyassociateswithall sorts of radical Religious Right figures and promotes the same agenda but, for some reason, these connections never seem to damage his reputation with the media or the general population.

Nothing better demonstrates this disconnect then the fact that today Huckabee is in Michigan headlining a fundraiser for radical anti-gay activist Gary Glenn as he makes a quixotic bid for the US Senate:

Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will be making a pitch for U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn at the Birch Run Expo Center.

Huckabee will appear Thursday at the free rally and a $1,000-per-couple reception for Glenn, one of at least eight Michigan Republicans running for the chance to take on Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow.

Glenn, in his capacity as head of the American Family Association of Michigan, has been a vicious anti-gayactivist, saying companies should not to hire gays on the grounds that "individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences [do not] constitute the best and the brightest."

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, has added his voice to a growing course of American leaders calling for the re-criminalization of homosexuality in the U.S.

In an e-mail to Michigan Messenger, here’s how Glenn responded when asked if he supported the criminalization move proposed by the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg’s comments last week on Hardball:

“The short answer to your question is yes, we believe that states should be free to regulate and prohibit behavior that’s a violation of community standards and a proven threat to public health and safety — including, as most of the United States did throughout its history, homosexual behavior.”

Huckabee has a long history of supporting Glenn, even filming a message for an AFA of Michigan banquet in 2009 in which he heaped praise upon him, saying that "if we had leaders like Gary Glenn across America, our work wouldn't be so hard":

Now, Glenn is seeking to take his radical anti-gay views with him to the United States Senate and Huckabee is proudly raising money to help him accomplish that.

As Sam Stein reports, Glenn is targeting Democratic state House candidate Toni Sessoms with robocalls that use the word "homosexual" ten times:

Liberal Democratic lawyer and openly homosexual statehouse candidate Toni Sessoms, doesn't share our values. Michiganliberal.com boasts that Sessoms is 'independently wealthy, and if elected would become the first openly lesbian state representative.' Sessoms is endorsed by the homosexual newspaper in Detroit, by Detroit's homosexual equality Michigan PAC and by the Michigan Democratic Party homosexual and transgender caucus. Sessom's campaign manager is the openly homosexual Central Michigan University faculty member who lost the statehouse race two years ago. Her deputy campaign manager was co-president of CMU's homosexual student group -- an openly homosexual candidate with a campaign run by homosexual activists. But, of course, in a district where voters strongly supported the marriage protection amendment none of this is disclosed on Toni Sessom's campaign material. With homosexual activists in the Michigan Democratic Party pushing to repeal our marriage amendment, our families deserve a state representative we can trust shares our values. Not a candidate with a hidden agenda, homosexual activist agenda, not Toni Sessoms.

Posner notes that Huckabee and Glenn have a long history and points to this video in which Huckabee positvely gushes about the work being done by Glenn and the AFA Michigan:

The following year, Huckabee provided a videotaped speech to Glenn's group's annual fundraiser, in which he called Glenn "a very special friend. . . one of the stalwart, key people who absolutely has not flinched or wavered in his commitment to pro-life and pro-family values." He continued, "If we had leaders like Gary Glenn across America, our work wouldn't be so hard. . . . [they] have been committed to maintaining a solid course for truth."